Vinny McGuire's makes excellent pizza

NICK TOMECEK / Daily News

By DEL STONE JR. / Daily News

Published: Friday, March 28, 2014 at 03:49 PM.

DESTIN – What’s your favorite desert island food?
For some it’s a big, juicy hamburger, invented by – well, let’s not go there. For others it’s a tofu and veggie horror … that’s just Crazytown and we won’t go there either.
To paraphrase Shirley Jackson, no live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality – without pizza!
And that’s where we’re going – to Vinny McGuire’s Pizza Pub.

The food
Vinny McGuire’s serves pizza. Do you need anything more?
The menu consists of small and large pizzas, with a smattering of appetizers, a salad and gelato. And I like that limited menu. Choices are great but too many are a pain in the you-know-where.
You do, however, get to choose from just about everything they put on a pizza. Vinny’s calls it “Create your own pizza.” The server hands you a one-page menu and a golfer’s pencil, and you circle what you want, starting with the sauce. Italian, red or white sauce? ( I definitely don’t want white sauce on a pizza, but I guess the Yankees roll that way ). Circle your choice.
Next come toppings. You get the first three at no extra charge and every one after that is a dollar.
Let’s start with cheese. They offer all of the standards, like mozzarella or Provolone, and a few not-so-standards, like goat cheese. That’s what I got on my small pie and was blown away by how rich and fatty goat cheese tastes – it might be my new favorite food I’m not supposed to eat.
From cheese we move to fruit and veggie toppings. Again, you choose among the usual and unusual suspects – sliced enemy vegetable (onions), fresh spinach, banana peppers or pineapple, among many others. I chose jalapenos and black olives. A word of warning about the jalapenos – they’re like little slices of lava in your mouth. If you don’t like hot, spicy foods, avoid jalapenos.
Let’s wrap up our pizza creation with a meat or seafood topping. In this category, you get lots of unconventional selections, from smoked prime rib and chicken to smoked pork, ham, Philly steak, Cajun sausage (Dang! I meant to try that!) and shrimp, anchovies or prosciutto. Those are just a few of the options.
Your pizza can also go “naked” with simply red sauce and mozzarella.
My friend opted for the ground beef and crimini mushrooms pizza, and I stole a slice. It was very flavorful and filling. That’s true of all the Vinny’s ingredient combinations we tried (including mozzarella and Italian sausage).
The small pizzas are not that small, and the large pizzas are indeed large, so don’t let your eyes get the better of your stomach.
Our pizzas came with a ranch dipping sauce. In the interest of gastronomical accuracy I tried it, and I’m happy to report it applied another flavor dimension to our pizza. But if ranch can make a carrot taste good, I assume pizza would be no problem.
Before our pies arrived we munched on fried ravioli, which was crusty on the outside and creamy-delicious on the inside. You can also opt for mozzarella sticks or Vinny’s spinach dip. The crispy calamari on the menu wasn’t available.
The menu also lists a Greek salad and, for dessert, gelato in pistachio, mocha, chocolate and berry flavors.

The atmosphere
It was a cool night so we ate inside, which has limited seating. In warmer weather, you’ll want to sit on the patio, which has a walkup bar.
The interior was comfortable and cozy, with lots and lots of dollar bills hanging from the ceiling, a McGuire’s tradition. Each table had a candle, and the walls were festooned with funky Italian posters of American movies made in the 1960s and ’70s. They were a hoot to take in.

The service
The ever vigilant and funny John kept a good eye on our table, firing up our candle and making sure we had to-go boxes (yes, our eyes got the better of our stomachs).

A final taste
Folks who believe McGuire’s should stick to corned-beef sandwiches are missing out – the pizza at Vinny’s is excellent.
The crust is substantial, the toppings generous and the pie size bigger than you’d expect. Sit outside with a pub glass of their homebrewed IPA and watch the sun set over Choctawhatchee Bay.
It’s not a desert island, but you didn’t want to go there anyway, did you?

DESTIN – What’s your favorite desert island food?
For some it’s a big, juicy hamburger, invented by – well, let’s not go there. For others it’s a tofu and veggie horror … that’s just Crazytown and we won’t go there either.
To paraphrase Shirley Jackson, no live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality – without pizza!
And that’s where we’re going – to Vinny McGuire’s Pizza Pub.

The food
Vinny McGuire’s serves pizza. Do you need anything more?
The menu consists of small and large pizzas, with a smattering of appetizers, a salad and gelato. And I like that limited menu. Choices are great but too many are a pain in the you-know-where.
You do, however, get to choose from just about everything they put on a pizza. Vinny’s calls it “Create your own pizza.” The server hands you a one-page menu and a golfer’s pencil, and you circle what you want, starting with the sauce. Italian, red or white sauce? ( I definitely don’t want white sauce on a pizza, but I guess the Yankees roll that way ). Circle your choice.
Next come toppings. You get the first three at no extra charge and every one after that is a dollar.
Let’s start with cheese. They offer all of the standards, like mozzarella or Provolone, and a few not-so-standards, like goat cheese. That’s what I got on my small pie and was blown away by how rich and fatty goat cheese tastes – it might be my new favorite food I’m not supposed to eat.
From cheese we move to fruit and veggie toppings. Again, you choose among the usual and unusual suspects – sliced enemy vegetable (onions), fresh spinach, banana peppers or pineapple, among many others. I chose jalapenos and black olives. A word of warning about the jalapenos – they’re like little slices of lava in your mouth. If you don’t like hot, spicy foods, avoid jalapenos.
Let’s wrap up our pizza creation with a meat or seafood topping. In this category, you get lots of unconventional selections, from smoked prime rib and chicken to smoked pork, ham, Philly steak, Cajun sausage (Dang! I meant to try that!) and shrimp, anchovies or prosciutto. Those are just a few of the options.
Your pizza can also go “naked” with simply red sauce and mozzarella.
My friend opted for the ground beef and crimini mushrooms pizza, and I stole a slice. It was very flavorful and filling. That’s true of all the Vinny’s ingredient combinations we tried (including mozzarella and Italian sausage).
The small pizzas are not that small, and the large pizzas are indeed large, so don’t let your eyes get the better of your stomach.
Our pizzas came with a ranch dipping sauce. In the interest of gastronomical accuracy I tried it, and I’m happy to report it applied another flavor dimension to our pizza. But if ranch can make a carrot taste good, I assume pizza would be no problem.
Before our pies arrived we munched on fried ravioli, which was crusty on the outside and creamy-delicious on the inside. You can also opt for mozzarella sticks or Vinny’s spinach dip. The crispy calamari on the menu wasn’t available.
The menu also lists a Greek salad and, for dessert, gelato in pistachio, mocha, chocolate and berry flavors.

The atmosphere
It was a cool night so we ate inside, which has limited seating. In warmer weather, you’ll want to sit on the patio, which has a walkup bar.
The interior was comfortable and cozy, with lots and lots of dollar bills hanging from the ceiling, a McGuire’s tradition. Each table had a candle, and the walls were festooned with funky Italian posters of American movies made in the 1960s and ’70s. They were a hoot to take in.

The service
The ever vigilant and funny John kept a good eye on our table, firing up our candle and making sure we had to-go boxes (yes, our eyes got the better of our stomachs).

A final taste
Folks who believe McGuire’s should stick to corned-beef sandwiches are missing out – the pizza at Vinny’s is excellent.
The crust is substantial, the toppings generous and the pie size bigger than you’d expect. Sit outside with a pub glass of their homebrewed IPA and watch the sun set over Choctawhatchee Bay.
It’s not a desert island, but you didn’t want to go there anyway, did you?